A Tentacle Romance Novella

"I couldn't find you anywhere, and I was scared. I couldn't just leave you alone on my last night here. But you weren't anywhere in the house. Why did you leave?"

The crooning continued, and Nomy's eyes remained shut.

"Please, say something! You're worrying me! I don't know what's going on!"

Melina pressed both hands to his trunk, digging her fingers into the grooves of his body.

"You always know how I'm feeling, but I don't know unless you say something! Please, talk to me!"

The deep vibration of Nomy's body died down. A tentacle reached down and wound around her, wrapping loop after loop around her body, and held her gently against his trunk. Finally, his voice barely more than a whisper, he spoke.

"I don't want you to leave."

Stunned, Melina struggled to find a response, but the words wouldn't come to her. After a pause, Nomy continued.

"I know you can't be happy here. Everyone you knew and cared about is back in your world. You have a place in your university, you have people who support your work. You have everything you need to live a proper life there. You don't have anything here. You can barely get around my house on your own, you can't talk to anyone else..."

Nomy's voice became rough as Melina felt the deep vibration of his trunk stirring again.

"I can't even give you proper food here. No matter what, I can't make this place a proper home for you. No matter what I do. So I have to send you back. Even though the time you've been here has been the happiest in my life. Because I love you."

Tears prickling the back of her throat, Melina wrapped her arms around Nomy's trunk, feeling the tremors of his sorrow shuddering through her body. He reached down another tentacle, stroking her hair as he spoke.

"I wanted to come with you. I'd leave this whole world behind to be with you. But I can't. The flow of magic in your world is too different. My body won't work without magic like yours. If I stepped through that circle and set foot on your world, my hearts would stop and I'd die."

Melina clung to Nomy's trunk, holding him as tight as she could, her cheek pressed against him wet with tears.

"I'm sorry!" she sobbed. "I'm sorry! I didn't know!"

Nomy's tentacles wrapped tighter around her, and the vibration of his trunk grew stronger, the crooning sound becoming audible again.

"I'm sorry Nomy, please don't cry! I didn't... I never wanted to make you sad. I'm so sorry. Please..."

She choked on her words, then steadied herself, feeling the warmth of his body all around her.

"I'll stay for you."

"You can't!" Nomy's voice was so rough she could barely make out the words.

"I will. I can't just leave you like this. I love you."

Nomy held her in his embrace, caressing her hair, the vibrations of his trunk quieting, but not dying away.

"You can't just leave your whole world behind for me Melina. You'll be miserable." he said.

"I won't. Do you think I've been miserable being here with you?" she asked.

"I only see the face you put on in front of me. I don't see how you're feeling when you're by yourself."

Melina let out a tearful laugh. "I've been bored as hell, mostly. When I'm not with you or working, there's not a lot for me to do. But that's better than I'd feel if I went back and left you behind forever."

The tremors in Nomy's trunk finally died down.

"You really love me?" he asked.

"I do. I've tried to put it aside, because I thought you couldn't possibly... But I've never loved anyone else the way I love you."

Nomy held her, silently caressing her for a while, before he spoke again.

"I tried not to get too many things for you in town, when we went before. I wanted to make it easier for you, but I thought if I went too far, you'd know that I wanted you to stay. I can make my house nicer for you. And if you're staying, I can teach you to read. Even if you don't have the right parts to speak my language, it should still be possible to read and write it."

Melina's laugh this time was much less choked with tears.

"I'll write really, really small you know."

"I'll still be able to read it." Nomy said.

"That's good then."

"I can take you more places. Show you things. I didn't want to take up time that would keep you here longer."

"I'd like that." she said.

"You really love me?" he asked.

"I really love you. I already said it twice. You say it again."

He hoisted her into the air, winding his tentacles around her in a way he never had before, not just supporting her weight, but reveling in her touch.

"I love you." he said. "If you're staying, you're going to hear it a lot. You might get tired of it."

"I won't."

He set off, carrying her back towards his house.

"Well," he said, "that's good then."

~~~

Melina awoke to the feeling of Nomy stroking her cheek.

Basic constraints of anatomy prevented them from sharing a bed together- like the fact that Nomy couldn't sleep in a bed. But with her mattress laid out beside him while she slept, he could rest a tentacle alongside her which she could hold onto. Being able to cuddle up against him while still having nearly the entire mattress to herself was, she thought, probably the best of both worlds.

"Good morning." she said.

"Oh, sorry, did I wake you?" he asked. "I didn't mean to."

"It's fine. I haven't slept this well since I got here."

She wrapped her arms around his tentacle, giving it a tight squeeze, and her responded by looping a coil around her whole body, squeezing her back.

"You know I can't get out of bed like this, right?" she asked.

"Of course you can." Nomy said, as he hoisted her smoothly off the mattress.

Although breakfast was exactly the same thing as always, for the first time, Melina welcomed its blandness for the minimal distraction it offered from her company.

"So," he asked, "have any plans for the day?"

"I dunno. Plan renovations for the house? Go sightseeing? I think we've earned a break for a while."

"I planned renovations ages ago." he said. "I didn't think I'd ever get the chance to use them, but we could go pick stuff up today if you want."

"Not today. We can do it soon. I'm still feeling all swoony though, I'd rather just spend the day together with my... boyfriend? Sweetheart?"

"Boyfriend seems like a weird word." he said. "And I don't think I can be just one sweetheart when I have six."

"I guess that makes you my sweethearts then." she said. "Anyway, it might get awkward if we ran into that woman again. So I'd rather leave that for, I dunno, whenever."

Nomy trilled out a word, probably the woman's name. It was the first time in a while that she'd heard him speak his native language given her complete failure to pick up on it.

"If we did run into her, at least I'd have a proper comeback for her this time." he said.

"What sort of comeback?" she asked.

"It's not as snappy in your language. But I'd tell her that spending years trying to reach out to other worlds was worth it for just one conversation with you."

"If you tell me things like that, I'm never going to complain about it not being snappy enough." she said.

Something about his words gave her pause though, and she spent a moment mulling it over before she asked:

"Nomy, do you think I'm pretty?"

She blushed as soon as the words made it out of her mouth. It sounded childish, like something a girl half her age might say. But still, she realized, the answer mattered to her. Since Nomy had confessed his own feelings for her, her feelings, not simply of affection, but attraction and desire, had come into full bloom. As if she'd been holding herself back all along from believing that Nomy was someone she could feel desire for. But even if he loved her as a companion, that didn't mean he felt the same way towards her that she did towards him.

"I do." he said. "I've thought so since the very first time I saw you."

Melina thought back to their very first encounter, and exactly how she'd reacted to seeing him for the first time.

"You thought I was pretty when I was on the floor gibbering in terror?" she asked.

Nomy twisted his tentacles, embarrassed.

"You were small and cute and you seemed really scared. I couldn't help wanting to protect you."

She could feel her face heating up at that. That pushed some buttons very hard for her which no one in her own world had ever touched. But it still didn't answer her real question.

"Do you think about me the way you'd think of a woman of your own species? Do I make you want to..." she trailed off, less from embarrassment than from the thought of how every way of finishing that question only brought to mind the sheer improbability of the notion.

Nomy paused for a long time at that question. Not just composing an answer; even his tentacles went scrupulously still, as if he was trying to conceal his emotions.

"...Yes." he said. "That was... when that woman shouted at me before? Even if she was just looking for excuses to criticize me, it was hard to say anything back, because she was right about that."

As he broke his silence, Nomy began to twist his tentacles together, painfully anxious.

"She called me... I don't know if your language has a word for it. She thought I was disgusting. Because I look at you like that. What could I say? I couldn't deny it."

"I'd never think you're disgusting, Nomy." Melina said.

She looked up at him. She'd never even had go to on tiptoe for this before, but with Nomy, there was no way she could reach on her own. Still, that could be enjoyable too in its own way.

"Pick me up?" she asked.

He reached down and gently wrapped a tentacle around her, lifting her into the air.

"I've always loved the feeling of having you do this. Even when I didn't know how you felt, or realize how I felt, it was kind of a guilty pleasure." she said.

"I thought I was probably imagining that." he said. "It seemed too much like wishful thinking on my part."

"Nope, I'm definitely into it." She spread her arms wide. "Bring me up close. Right under your eyes."

Nomy drew her in close to his trunk, just close enough for her to reach. She bent forward and kissed him. It was a bit awkward with the space in front of her devoid of facial features, but she reached out and grasped hold of him, feeling a sense of rightness in his touch as she drew out the kiss.

"I've done that once before." she said "But that was above your eyes. For humans, a kiss on the forehead or the cheek is something you'd do with family, or a close friend. But on the mouth, under the eyes, that's for a lover."

Nomy stroked her cheek with his tentacle, and gently lowered her back to the ground.

"I love you and I want you, Nomy. I'd never hate you for wanting me too. What do your people do instead of kissing?"

"Oh, that's... a bit tricky since you don't have tentacles. But I can improvise too."

He reached out towards her, not with one or two tentacles like usual, but with more than half his tentacles at once. They traced lightly along her body at first, barely a hint of a touch, but gradually picked up strength, a caressing embrace which encompassed her whole body. His tentacles ran up and down her limbs, kneading into her muscle. He was strong enough to restrain her effortlessly, but when she tried to move her arms, he gave way for her, clinging close and stroking her even as she moved. He lifted just slightly with all his supporting tentacles at once, and she could feel herself become almost weightless in his grip.

Her breath caught as two of his tentacles ran up along the underside of her breasts, lifting up underneath and then running over them. She could feel her nipples stiffening as his tentacles caressed them through the fabric of her clothes, and then twisted around them, squeezing and kneading into her in gentle spirals. He moved along her body in waves, squeezing, relaxing, stroking, holding, in too many places at once for her to process a pattern.

She wanted to reach out and grasp hold of him, return his embrace, but with just her two hands, it was impossible to return something like this. As she held her hands out though, he looped a pair of tentacles through them, twisting over on themselves and running along the backs of her hands as she squeezed down on them. Another ran up her chest along her neck, and began stroking her cheek. She turned to kiss it, and after a moment's hesitation, it slipped inside her mouth.

Stretched to its maximum extent, its thickness was comparable to a human tongue, but firmer and far more dexterous, twisting around and feeling her own tongue, her palate, the insides of her cheeks. His tentacle had a slight taste to it, savory and faintly bitter, and she chased after it with her tongue. The feeling was far different than, and, she couldn't help but think, much more sexual than a kiss. And unlike a kiss, even surrounded by her lover, they were still far apart enough for her to gaze up at him, and see those beautiful eyes of his watching her.

With nearly all her weight off the ground, she couldn't fall even when his tentacles wrapped around her legs, squeezing her calves and coiling upwards, kneading deep into her thighs, then further up, meeting behind her, lifting up against the cheeks of her ass. The added lift was enough to bring her to tiptoe, and her legs began to tremble. For a moment, she thought it might just be the strain of seeking contact with the ground. But when Nomy finally uncoiled his tentacles from around her, her legs didn't stop quivering.

"That seemed... like a bit more than a kiss." she said.

"It would be a bit different if you had tentacles." he said.

"Well, I still enjoyed it without them."

"That's good."

He stroked her face again, and she grasped hold of his tentacle. She could feel her hand trembling slightly.

"Nomy," she said, "I should... show you something I haven't shown you yet since I've been living here."

"Show me what?" he asked, drawing back his tentacle to give her space.

She took a moment to steady herself, then began to unbutton her blouse. She pulled it off, let it fall to the floor, then unbuttoned her skirt and stepped out of it. Nomy had seen her underwear countless times before- he was the one doing the laundry after all- but he'd still never seen her in it.

"I know your people don't wear clothes at all, but to humans, letting you look at me like this is a big deal. So, I want you to see me. Because it's you."

She unlaced her bra behind her and slipped it off, then reached down and pulled down her panties. She let out a little gasp when she saw the trail of wetness connecting them to her, and stood up with her heart pounding. Even the first time she'd undressed in front of a partner, she hadn't been this nervous. And not once, with all the partners she'd been with, had she ever felt this aroused, this desiring of their touch.

She stood before him completely bare. He had no reference from other human bodies to compare her to. Her flushed skin, her heavy breathing, the hardness of her nipples and the trickling wetness between her lips, all of them were signs he'd never seen before, in her or in anyone. But he already knew she loved and wanted him, she wanted to show him her body's desire for him as well. She cradled her arms under her breasts, as much to occupy them in her nervousness as to show herself off to him.

"So," she asked, "do you still think I'm pretty?"

"You're beautiful." he said, and reached out to touch her again, stroking her cheek at the same time as he explored the body she'd exposed.

The knot of tension in her stomach, her fear that her alien body might have no appeal to Nomy, began to unwind, but her heartbeat didn't slow. He gently lifted her arms up over her head and traced a path down her body with his tentacles, lingering on parts of her body he'd never seen before. She squirmed with ticklishness as he stroked the insides of her armpits, but let out a completely different gasp when he ran the tips of his tentacles over her nipples.

"You're so beautiful like this. I'm seeing faces I've never seen from you before."

She smiled up at him, biting her lip at the sensation.

"What can I say? I want you to see every side of me."

He continued to tease at her breasts as his other tentacles made their way down her body. Even if her anatomy was unfamiliar to him, there was no question he was picking up what felt good for her. He curled around them in ways impossible for a human hand, a gentle but powerful caress which sent tingles running down her body. His exploratory touching around her bellybutton was quickly abandoned as she failed to respond. He slid one tentacle along the cleft of her ass, swaying it back and forth and squeezing at her cheeks, reveling in the feeling of her unclothed softness.

As he ran one tentacle down between her legs, coming away streaked with her wetness, the jolt of pleasure sent her hand down to grasp at him, gripping him tight. Even though he could have held her arms in place with no effort at all, he gave way to her movement, and stopped where she held him.

"No?" he asked.

"Yes. There most of all. I want you to treat me like you'd treat a lover from your own world."

Nomy caressed her face, drawing out a long silence. It struck her suddenly that he was probably more nervous than she was. She trusted Nomy completely, but he was always concerned for her safety, would never want to hurt her. She held his tentacle as he stroked her, waiting for him to make his resolve.

"Can I get a better look?" he asked.

"Of course."

Although she'd never been the type to have sex with the lights off, she'd never enjoyed being treated as a display piece either. But it was different for Nomy, and with him, she knew it would be an entirely different experience.

He gently wrapped a tentacle around her waist, one under each arm, and one around her legs, lifting her into the air. With all the times he'd picked her up before, she'd never been so completely held, and even though she knew that if she resisted, he'd immediately let her free, she reveled in the feeling of how completely he could fix her in space. He lifted her high into the air, up to the level of his eyes, and he gazed into hers as a pair of his tentacles roamed up and down her body.

"You're so beautiful like this." he said. "You really like it like this?"

"I love it."

Slowly, he brought down another tentacle, unwinding the one wrapped around her legs and grasping them with one tentacle each, shifting them apart. He leaned her back slightly, fully exposing her to his view. Where her thighs had been pressed together before, they glistened with trails of her wetness, and she throbbed with the need to be touched.

He wound his tentacles up her thighs, and gently, with the tips of both at once, parted her lips.

Nomy never gasped, or sighed, or drew audible breath. He didn't say anything, and so she couldn't read his reactions, but as he stared at her, she squirmed in his grip, more with need than embarrassment.

"I'm not usually this wet." she said. "I mean... I'm not usually wet like this just walking around, but I'm not usually this wet with a partner either. It's like this because I really want you."

"Ohhh."

Even if it was completely at his own will, his response was like a sigh, and she could hear the satisfaction in his voice.

"I'm glad then." he said.

He drew back the tentacles at her lips and wrapped them in another loop around her thighs, kneading into her as he parted them wider. To the numerous tentacles already holding, stroking and feeling her body, he added another, snaking up directly between her legs. Stretched to its narrowest extent, he ran the tip along the length of her slit.

"Oh!" she let out a gasp as his tentacle, slick with her wetness, brushed along her clit.